Take the initiative

Starting from the 25th, Wu Shaoting has been paying attention to the development of the domestic war. The wars in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Jiangsu were intermittent, and the news reports were different. Some said the situation was very tense, and some said that the occasional sporadic friction was occasionally. In order to obtain the exact news, he sent a lot of agents to sneak into these provinces and closely monitor the dynamics of the Beiyang Army. Until early this morning, Hunan sent a call to report that the first town Cao Kun Infantry Association had entered Changsha, and Tang Xiangming was also rushing from Jiujiang to Hunan.

After reading the telegram, Wu Shaoting stood up and ordered the correspondent of the division command post: "Telection the Artillery Corps, bombard the two base numbers in Wuzhou at 9 o'clock tonight. Telegram Wei Ru's delegation is on standby at any time and attack Hezhou."

He Fuguang from the staff room heard Wu Shaoting's order and walked out in surprise and asked, "Governor, you are..."

Wu Shaoting said decisively: "A battle between Guangdong and Guangxi is sooner or later. Lu Rongting believes that he is not a rival to our army. He has always wanted to delay the Beiyang army going south to take the opportunity to respond to each other. Since he is destined to fight, it is better to take the initiative instead of waiting to be beaten."

He Fuguang was a little worried and reminded: "But now the whole country only believes that Guangdong is a self-defense counterattack. If we fight undeclared, we are afraid that the people of Guangdong and Guangxi will change their previous attitude!"

Wu Shaoting sneered coldly: "The people of Guangdong do not like wars happening in the province the most. As for Guangxi, it is not my family, so why should I worry about them? There is no morality on the battlefield. I can do anything to win. This is how I taught my subordinates since I was a sentry officer. This battle must be fought."

He Fuguang was silent for a moment, without saying a word, quickly returned to the staff room and summoned all the staff officers and began to deduce the offensive imaginary picture of the First Division. The originally silent division headquarters suddenly became active, with telegrams coming and going, the staff room was arguing, and the figures of the attendants were busy shuttled.

At two o'clock in the morning, Zhang Dakai stood at the edge of the hexagonal top mountain on the border of Guangdong and Guangxi, and looked southwest with a thousand-mile mirror. Wuzhou City is 40 miles away, but the base of Guangxi's Third Mixed Association is only separated by a Li River, which is almost four miles away. Five 210mm caliber heavy artillery for the second phase of Germany were placed on the hillside behind him, and the Gui army barracks were completely covered within the range. Although they had reached the point, their sight was pitch black. The military barracks on the other side of the river could not see anything in the camp except for patrolling braziers at the gate.

"What time is it?" Zhang Dakai got off the Qianli Miles and turned around and asked the staff officer Chen Fang.

Chen Fang took out his pocket watch and walked in front of her eyes, opened her eyes wide, and then replied, "It was exactly two o'clock."

Zhang Dakai was a little impatient and murmured: "What are you doing? Didn't the above say that the agents sent to guide the light? It's a little over and there's no movement yet. Wait for a while, if the agents can't handle it, I will order my brothers to guess the shooting angle."

The six battalions of the Mixed Association cover a very wide area. Even if you can see several patrol braziers at the gates now, you may not be able to guess where the most suitable bombing location is. You can only blame the orders received in the evening, otherwise you should aim at the right position while the daytime is in the first place and fire directly at night.

Chen Fang hurriedly said, "Mr. Zhang is not good. Since the above said that there will be agents sneaking into the military camp to guide them, they will definitely send people. Maybe the brothers over there will encounter some accident. If the fire is fired now, wouldn't they be put in danger? This is more serious than delaying the fire!"

Zhang Dakai stopped, sighed and said, "Yes, yes, then let's continue waiting."

At this moment, an observer suddenly shouted: "Sir, the Gui army camp is on fire. That should be a signal."

Zhang Dakai was about to walk to a dirt ridge and sit down to rest. He immediately jumped up when he heard this shout. He grabbed the Qianli Miles Mirror from his servant and looked at the other side of the river again. He saw that a fire broke out in the southwest direction of the Third Mixed Military Camp, as if a military tent had been lit. There was a burst of chaos in the barracks, and even the yelling sound could be heard here.

"Hurry up, adjust the firing angle and aim at the coverage within 300 meters around the flame. Listen to my order..." Zhang Dakai stared at the position of the flame while listening to the sound of the artillery behind him turning the rollers. When one of the cannons was silent, he immediately ordered, "Fire the cannon!"

"Boom"! With a loud bang, the 210m cannon spewed out a flame, and a shell screamed and pulled through the night sky. In the blink of an eye, a flower exploded in the Gui army's military camp, and then all the camps woke up suddenly, screaming, shouting, and orders. The Gui army stationed in Wuzhou for nearly half a month, and repeatedly emphasized that the Guangdong army would not take the initiative to attack, and everyone lived a very peaceful life every day. Who knew that today was a bolt from the blue, and Guangdong suddenly opened fire. It was simply unresponsive and it was completely disorganized.

"Two five, direction to the left, zero one9, keep the angle, and fire the gun." The observer corrected the shooting angle according to the first shell. After a command, a loud noise came from the cannon position behind him. This time the shell fell within 100 meters around the flames. "Two cannons are fired at the same time! Launch!"

Two cannons roared, and the shells smashed into the Gui army's military camp. With just the test of artillery, the camps on the other side of the river were already full of fire. The Gui army soldiers who woke up from their sleep had no idea of ​​going to put out the fire. The first idea was to escape from the camp in the chaos.

After locking the shooting angle, five cannons bombarded wildly, and soon the entire Southwest Camp area was blown up.

Some generals of the Gui army also tried to stabilize the situation, but in the face of the suppression of cannons without any power to counterattack, the soldiers no longer had any morale. The general shot a deserter and failed, so he had to escape with the soldiers. Other battalions immediately entered the combat state at the beginning of the artillery. After a company commander discovered the position of the enemy's artillery, he quickly summoned his subordinates to prepare for an assault. They came to the riverside and found the ship to cross the river. However, just halfway through the ferry, the sound of heavy machine guns suddenly sounded on the opposite bank.

Mo Qingyu's regiment headquarters had long been stationed in Fengkai County and set up front defense lines along the east bank of the river. In the evening, he issued a telegram to his subordinates and reiterated his combat orders. Any cross-border attack from the west bank would not require any warning or report, and would allow all combat units to open fire to meet the enemy.

A company that crossed the river in Gui Army did not understand the situation at all. Under the sweeping of heavy machine guns, several people died on the spot. The rest jumped into the water and swam back to the west bank. After getting ashore, the company commander completely gave up the idea of ​​assault and quickly fled back to the battalion to report the situation. At this time, the artillery bombardment had been ongoing for half an hour, and the Third Mixed Association suffered heavy casualties. Although the enemy artillery fire was all concentrated in the southwest camp, other battalions were obviously also exposed to the radiation surface of artillery fire, so it was naturally not suitable to stay for a long time. After listening to the report of the company commander who crossed the river, Lin Junting, the commander of the Mixed Association, knew that there was no counter-artery force, and ordered the entire army to abandon the camp and rescue materials as much as possible and withdraw them into Wuzhou City.

At about three o'clock, the two base numbers of hexagonal top cannons were completed, and the artillery fire stopped.
Chapter completed!